The Jacket
by AngelQueen
Summary: What happened in the aftermath... [Spoilers for The Quest, Part 2, Line in the Sand, The Road Not Taken, and The Shroud.]


_The Quest, Part 2_

The rest of the team left Daniel's office hours ago, probably not long after she did. Vala didn't mean to snap at them, she knew they were in just as much pain she was, maybe even more. Samantha and Teal'c had known Daniel for years, and even Colonel Mitchell couldn't hide his worry completely. She wasn't the only one suffering.

But she was the only one who had any idea how the Ori and their followers operated when it came to prisoners or unbelievers. Adria had admitted more than once that the Ori had plans for Daniel and Vala doubted those plans involved having a pleasant conversation over tea and muffins.

She rested her hands lightly on the back of the desk chair and looked down to see the BDU jacket draped over it. Involuntarily, her fingers clenched and the garment balled up in her fist. Lifting it up, Vala stared at it, feeling that it somehow held all the answers in the universe.

She had left him there. She had let Colonel Mitchell drag her away, let him force her to leave Daniel to Adria's dubious mercies.

Vala clutched the jacket to her tightly. "I'm so sorry," she breathed.

_Line in the Sand_

She sat in her quarters, lit only by the light she'd left on in her bathroom. Staring into the shadows, Vala wondered why she kept expecting the General to knock on her door to ask her to get information out of Tomin. She knew very well that it hadn't happened that way. Tomin had sent her away, likely at the cost of his own life. She couldn't dare hope that Adria could or would spare him.

Vala glanced down at the foot of the bed, where Daniel's jacket lay. She didn't know if Samantha or any of the others had noticed her requisitioning it before the mission, but if they did, she hadn't cared.

Still, she turned her gaze away from it. Vala had been strong through many things in her life. She had survived being trapped within her own mind by a parasite, had been burned alive and resurrected. But she couldn't mourn two men at once.

Tomin was gone now. She had no way of knowing if Daniel was alive or not, but she couldn't think about him.

She slumped wearily back against her pillows and closed her eyes, remembering a year spent far, far away from here.

_The Road Not Taken_

It had been far too quiet for the past two weeks. Daniel had not been there to badger them all with some new snippet of information he had scrounged up from his beloved books, and then Samantha vanished while playing with Merlin's device and didn't reappear.

Vala poked at the piece of pie she had swiped from the commissary and brought back to her quarters. Samantha had returned, had briefed them on that different reality she had found herself in (jail again?), and then had gone straight back to working on the device.

Even with Samantha back, it was still too quiet. And cold, something Vala hated. She shivered and groped for the jacket hanging on the back of her chair, wrapping it around her shoulders.

The scent of Daniel's subtle-smelling cologne had finally faded about a week after Samantha had disappeared. She didn't have access to Daniel's affects from his apartment, so that meant taking the bottle and hiding it in her quarters was out.

She sighed and pushed the uneaten confection away. She suddenly wasn't all that hungry anymore. Maybe Teal'c wasn't busy and would play basketball with her to keep her distracted from her own maudlin thoughts.

_The Shroud_

Vala appeared in the doorway of Daniel's office and stared at him. He stood at the table, staring down at the papers and books that had been left there.

"I thought about reorganizing them while you were gone," she said softly, "but your method of keeping everything in line makes no sense to me."

He jerked, looking at her in surprise. "Hm? Oh. Yeah," he murmured, his eyes drifting back to the table. "I just… I just don't know what to do."

She shrugged. "I don't really know either. You know more about these situations than I do." Her arms, which had been folded across her body and had his green jacket draped over them, unwound themselves and she moved toward him. "I should give this back, I suppose."

Daniel stared at the jacket in surprise, taking it slowly. He looked at it, and the up at her, saying nothing but obviously wishing for an explanation.

"I missed you," she said simply. And that was all she could, or would, say.

For now at least. And he seemed to accept that, as he only nodded.

They stood together in silence for a long while, but it wasn't an uncomfortable one.


End file.
